


Grimzlayerz Online

by SumDumMuffin



Series: Absolute Hoodwitch Armageddon [12]
Category: RWBY
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/F, MMORPGs, Mentor/Protégé, Role Reversal
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-23
Updated: 2020-09-23
Packaged: 2021-03-08 03:00:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,358
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26608648
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SumDumMuffin/pseuds/SumDumMuffin
Summary: High school teacher Glynda Goodwitch gets into an MMO, and through it, gets to know one of her students.
Relationships: Glynda Goodwitch/Ruby Rose
Series: Absolute Hoodwitch Armageddon [12]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1616476
Comments: 3
Kudos: 20





	Grimzlayerz Online

**Author's Note:**

> I guarantee no expertise in romance, high school, online games, or social interaction via online games. 
> 
> Loosely inspired by _Recovery of an MMO Junkie_ and those sketches in _Lucky Star_ where Konota and Nanako-sensei turned out to play the same MMO.

IRL, Glynda Goodwitch was just a high school science teacher, but now, she was just another nerd. And right now, she was trying to decide which hair style she wanted for her first (and only, she promised herself) character on GrimzSlayerz Online, a fairly established grindy MMO or something that just got a new expansion so the internet told her it was a good time to jump in on it. And it beat getting drunk and binging soap operas until she developed bed sores. 

But that was nothing; she’d spent a whole hour coming up with the name ‘Northwitch' (it was a pun on her last name, see), after discovering all the twelve character variants of her favorite anime Star Trek character were taken and deciding against any name with 'glitter' in it. Plus, she committed to the Witch class as soon as she saw it in the list, so it fit with the character she had in mind. 

See, recent budget cuts to the nation’s education system meant that she found herself with a lot more free time. And while other teachers used that time to reconnect with their inexorably alienated families and work additional part time jobs to support themselves, as a single, gay middle-aged nerd, Glynda didn’t really have anything else she wanted to do with her time or money. 

She didn’t want to start an expensive creative hobby, she didn’t want to go outside or meet people or start online dating, and while she supposed she knew people who would, like, travel to Japan to spend all their money on niche subculture merchandise, she was waaay to shy to do that. 

All she wanted was to experience the abstract feeling of accomplishment you get by watching little green bars go up in response to fulfilling simple, repetitive actions at the behest of a digital authority that would keep track of her dedication with a point buy system. 

Luckily there was an entire industry that catered to people who wanted that, ostensibly at no cost beyond buying the original games (And Glynda wondered how long she would last without breaking down and getting some cosmetics or a pack of loot boxes or whatever). 

And thus, right now, at 9 PM on a Thursday night, Glynda’s level 1 avatar was being told by the digital mascot of one part of that industry to go kill ten darkmice, which were basically regular mice except they reflected less light and were significantly easier to root out of walls. 

And then before she knew it, Glynda glanced at the clock and realized she was supposed to have left for school ten minutes ago.

* * *

But it was okay, because Glynda had planned for that eventuality- today was a school field trip day- to a museum, so not like, some place where Glynda would have to BS some life lessons or parables about the environment her students were supposed to be learning. The crux of that was that Glynda didn’t even have to be cogent or entirely awake, which was good because her brain was swimming with build ideas, and rather pointlessly trying to evaluate weather Ice Spike or Thunderstorm would be a cooler 7th level ability- she’d just have to try them out to tell, but that didn’t stop her brain from trying to come to a conclusion without enough evidence-

“Alright students, make sure you don’t get lost," Glynda addressed the class after they exited the bus. She stifled a yawn and rubbed the sleep from her eyes and tried to focus on her teaching duties-

“Ruby Rose,” Glynda stated, to her most troublesome student.

“Um- what, what is it, teacher?” said a short, pale girl with dark hair, in a red hoodie that was a few sizes too big for her. 

Glynda opened her mouth and closed her mouth, wondering where to begin (and trying not to think about which level 7 Chaos talent she wanted to try out first)

“First off, your bow is on wrong,” Glynda said. She stepped forward and adjusted the bow around Ruby’s collar. 

Ruby visibly tensed and she glanced away, but she allowed Glynda to fix her uniform. “T-thank you, Ma’am.”

Glynda scrunched her mouth to the side. “And secondly- did you forget your worksheet?" 

"I, um." Ruby titled her head down. "Yes."

Glynda pulled out her master copy and gave it to her student. She, probably didn't need that anymore. "Take care not to lose this one." 

“Yes Ma'am." 

And right before Glynda was about to turn away, Ruby muttered an “ummm.” 

“Yes?” Glynda said. 

“Do, you also have a pencil?” 

Glynda scrunched her mouth to the other side. She pulled a pen out of her breast pocket to offer to her student. “No. So you’re going to have to be careful not to mess up.” 

Ruby smushed her lips together. “I- I’ll try.” 

  
  
  


* * *

Ruby was her worst student. Skipping two grades had moved her from being a medium sized fish in a small pond to being a medium sized fish in a pond that had its own established culture and social norms, and that may have proved to be slightly too overwhelming for the teen.

But like, Glynda supposed it was pretty impressive that Ruby managed to test out of two whole years of education, and it'd only been a few months since the school year had started. Ruby always seemed distracted and unfocused, but there was time to build on those skills. 

* * *

One Monday morning, after a long weekend of rather disappointing farming, Glynda still hadn’t managed to kill enough Grimmdarkspawn to get an Ultraprefix drop, which allowed you to alter the prefix on another drop you had. And she had managed to pull a legendary for a build that was only slightly out of the way of her intended one- the point was, she needed that drop. 

So during her office hours (which technically meant her students could come in to ask her questions, but they never did), instead of grading papers or coming up with some more busywork for her Intro to Physics students, Glynda idly Googled around for a guide, and apparently there was one repeatable side quest that you could do something with to fight some monsters that had the option of being Grimmdarkspawn. 

Except this particular procedure only had youtube guides- there didn’t seem to be a text version. 

Buut, she supposed there was enough of a community that, just, had their youtubes playing in their ears while they were grinding, so it made sense that that was the default tutorial format.

Glynda had her headphones in to try to pay attention to the - she skipped through three minutes of introduction and failed attempts at comedy to get to the relevant parts and started taking notes-

-and as a result, she didn't hear that, for once, she actually did have a student come in during office hours-

“Do -do you play GSO?!?” Squeaked an excited voice. 

Glynda flinched, and turn to the student in question-

It was Ruby. 

“Yeah,” said Glynda. She rubbed the back of her head and tried not to blush. “I guess I spend some time on it.”

“Oh! I- I do too!” Ruby said, breathlessly, “What server do you play on?”

“I play on World 8?” Glynda said, 

"Oh, that makes sense," Ruby said, "im playing on the RP one now, but I have a few max level characters on 8. What class are you playing?” 

Glynda scrunched her mouth to the side. “Witch.” She braced for the incoming pun on her name, but it never came.

“Oh! Oh, actually,” Ruby jumped up on her toes, “I have an Executioner, and they’re actually very compatible classes- do you want to play together?"

Glynda scrunched her mouth to the other side. “I, guess..." 

And then they exchanged player handles. Ruby turned to leave-

“Ah-” Ruby said, right as she got to the door. “I, actually was also, actually, looking to get some help on the thermodynamics homework due this Friday?” 

“Ah- of, course, yeah,” Glynda said. 

* * *

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


And when Glynda logged in that night to the game client, she immediately received a message. 

**Red_lk_Roses:** Hey, teach!

It took Glynda a few tries to figure out how the chat worked, since she had literally never had to use it before. 

Turned out, it basically just regular typing, and she quickly got used to just tapping ‘enter’ randomly,

**Northwitch:** Hello. 

**Northwitch:** So how does this work? 

A popup in the game client appeared, saying that she had a friend request. 

**Red_lk_Roses:** come out to the Palm Cairn, ill met you there. 

So Glynda did, and she was joined by-

“Woah,” Glynda said. She adjusted her glasses and leaned closer to the screen.

Ruby’s character was really metal- a tall woman with a scythe bigger than she was, wearing a corset and thigh-high socks that seemed rather impractical for combat, but it was a video game so that didn't matter. 

Glynda noted her own Avatar was wearing some kind of sack cloth tunic and was still using a driftwood wand, because at her level it wasn't work it to invest in the aesthetics layer. Her headgear was legendary, which actually just looked even more out of place on her character. 

**Red_lk_Roses:** So, uh, you’re going to have to do this quest at least once, to unlock it, but once you do i can then host the instance to carry you through it until you get the drop? 

**Northwitch:** Okay. 

**Northwitch:** So how do I do that?” 

  
  
  


* * *

  
  
  
  


The questline wasn’t all that interesting, which was just as well because Ruby’s character was carrying her through the whole instance, knocking down the fodder as soon as they came into range. And that meant Glynda had some time to type. 

**Northwitch:** Your character looks really cool. 

**Red_lk_Roses:** Oh. Yeah, I guess I got some pretty cool transmogs. The best part of these sorts of games are the dress up parts, you know. 

**Red_lk_Roses:** And tacking on a cost to finding a piece of gear or a dye to sync your look is a good end-game money sink. 

“Ah,” Glynda said aloud. Idly, on her phone, she started looking up Witch torso armor transmogs. 

  
**Red_lk_Roses:** Anyway, most of the content in the game comes when you’re level 100, so, do you want me to boost you there? 

**Northwitch:** Um. 

**Northwitch:** How does that work?

**Red_lk_Roses:** I can just run some higher level instances and you’ll level a lot faster than if you were just grinding alone. 

Glynda scrunched her mouth to the side and considered, being a beneficiary of one of her students. A sugar baby, if you would. 

But she idly glanced at her phone and at the webpage of cosmetic themes that had loaded and saw, just, the most beautiful end-game nightdress for Witches- that even had a galaxy theme on it- and she suddenly wanted it more than anything. 

  
  


* * *

  
  
  
  


Ruby looked at her expectantly, the next day, during physics class. Glynda tried to ignore it, but right after the end of period, Ruby walked right up to her desk to ‘just say hi’.

Glynda waited until the rest of her class was out of earshot, and she tried to look dignified as she thanked her worst student for helping her with her video games. 

  
  
  


  
  


* * *

  
  
  
  


Turned out, getting carried through the story mode was significantly more convenient than trying to go through it on her own. Glynda didn’t find the story particularly compelling either.

So a few days later, Glynda messaged her, ah, game, party, member, friend, digital sugar mamma type person. It turned out the chat system could be used with either of the members was not currently in the game. 

**Northwitch:** Hello!

**Red_lk_Roses:** oh! hello, Ms Goodwitch. 

Glynda scrunched her mouth to the side. It was really ‘Mz.” buuuuttt...

**Northwitch:** well, as long as we’re in game, why on’t you call me ‘Glynda’?

**Red_lk_Roses:** um. Actually, usually we just call each other by their handles?

Glynda was glad that nobody was around to see her blush. 

**Northwitch:** oh. Yeah, that, works, but yours is a bit long.

**Red_lk_Roses:** Most people shorten it to Red 

Glynda regained her composure (which wasn’t all that important, on the other side of a screen). 

**Northwitch:** So, Red, do you want to challenge the Caldera of the Graven Pact today? 

**Red_lk_Roses:** Ah. 

**Red_lk_Roses:** i would, but i got some homework to do real quick. 

Glynda scrunched her mouth to the side and weighed how much she valued the traditional education system. 

**Northwitch:** Which classes? 

**Red_lk_Roses:** Just Mr. Port’s and, uh, 

**Red_lk_Roses:** Yours. 

Glynda rummaged through her work bag until she found the thermodynamics worksheet she had assigned at the beginning of the week. 

She took a picture of it with her phone, and a while back she had downloaded the mobile app to link with her GSO account (but she hadn’t yet tried out the associated autochess game that was apparently designed for the mobile experience), so she could, just, send an image to people on her friend list- 

  
  
  
  


**Red_lk_Roses:** Wait, is this

 **Red_lk_Roses:** The worksheet answers? 

**Northwitch:** Yeah. Just, remember the ideal gas law and you’ll be fine. 

**Red_lk_Roses:** I mean, i still need to do a paper on Mary Wollstonecraft. 

Glynda inhaled through the corner of her mouth. 

**Northwitch:** what do you have so far? 

  
  


And so Glynda joined Ruby on a cloud-based word document to help her write 3 paragraphs of a biography paper.

**Northwitch:** So. 

**Northwitch:** Same question I asked you earlier. :P

**Red_lk_Roses:** okay okay, fiiinnneeeee. Lets slay some Grimz.

Glynda pumped her fist in victory. 

* * *

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


**Northwitch:** So I’ve noticed i’ve been typing ‘z’s into my normal spellingz

 **Red_lk_Roses:** because of Grimzlayerz?

 **Northwitch:** Yes. I almost did it in one of the handouts for class.

 **Red_lk_Roses:** lol

 **Red_lk_Roses:** well, um

 **Red_lk_Roses:** if you’re really worried- we could just, switch to voice chat? 

Glynda paused.

**Northwitch:** Okay- but I have to get a mic firzt. 

  
  


* * *

  
  
  


“Oh man,” Glynda said into her recently-purchased headset, “This is a lot more convenient.” 

“Yeah,” Ruby said. “Its pretty much required if you want to coordinate for end-game raids. Speaking of-” 

“Yeah, I'm almost done with the main questline-” Glynda said, “Do you want to carry me through that? And then help me farm enough orbs to finish my build?” Glynda nodded. “And since my build isn’t finished, that means ‘kill enemies for me’?” 

“Sure sure,” Ruby said, “I’ve never had a sugar baby before, but I’ll make sure you get all the drops you want~” 

  
  
  


* * *

  
  
  
"So the thing is, ever since the 3.6 overhaul, attack and cast speed are significantly more important than other stats," Ruby explained. It turned out, she was actually pretty smart, just, a lot of her current knowledge was about GSO mechanics. 

"Okay, yeah," Glynda said. She started taking notes. 

* * *

“Woah,” Glynda said, right before they entered the boss arena. 

“What is it?” Ruby said, “You get a Legendary?” 

“No- just-” Glynda said, “this skybox.” 

“I- Oh. woah.” Ruby said. “I never noticed that before.”

“No?” Glynda said. She smirked. “I thought you were an expert at this game.” 

“Well, I guess the Executioner class is pretty optimized for this area, so I rushed through it the first time,” Ruby said. “It really is nice.” 

“Yeah,” Glynda said, “As nice as any sunset I’ve seen.” 

“Wait,” Ruby said, and Glynda could imagine her smirk, “Shouldn’t you be telling me to just look at sunsets in real life?” 

Glynda glanced at her clock, “Well, we could actually do that, in a couple hours, if you want.” 

“Ah!- well, this one’s got magic swirls in it, so, its, cooler than a real one.” 

And they just sat there, on the edge of one of the cliffs on the way to the bossfight, admiring the digital scenery. 

  
  
  


About a week later, they were almost done with the main storyline- and therefore, ready for for the final story boss. 

Glynda had idly found herself respeccing her character to compliment Ruby’s. The Executioner class was actually designed to be significantly more powerful with a party that had a decent amount of CC, so Glynda just, tabled her Bubble Witch concept to be more of a control-oriented character. 

“Aight, so there’s a big cutscene here,” Ruby said, “Lemme grab a snack while you listen to the vileness’s maniacal rant-”

"Can do,” Glynda said, and she heard the rustle of Ruby removing her headset. 

“And the attacks hit hard, so be careful not to mess up~” Ruby teased.

Glynda puffed out her cheek. “I’ll try.”

But then, twelve seconds into the cutscene, Glynda accidentally tapped her spacebar, and the game cut right into the fight. 

“Ahhhh-” Glynda popped all her barriers and started strafing in an attempt to stay alive. 

Funny enough, Ruby’s character just stood there, stoically taking demonic monster slashes to the face, dodging most of them. 

“Ahh-” Ruby's voice came, further away than if she was actually wearing her headset. 

“Ruby save me!” Glynda called out. 

  
  
  


And the screen exploded in colors as magic rose petals radially effervesced from Ruby’s character, and she starting dash-slicing around into groups of mobs that exploded into particle effects. 

And wordlessly, Glynda managed to do her stun sequence on the boss, which then just melted under Ruby’s finishers.

After over a decade of trying to herd recalcitrant students into doing state-sponsored educational activities, it was actually really cool to work together in a coordinated way with someone she could trust to be competent. 

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


* * *

“Alright!” Glynda said, only half-delirious with sleep deprivation, “Woot, I'm done~~." 

“Yay~” Ruby said, and she sounded similarly sleepy. “Yeah, you have all the farming spots unlocked now, save for some of the specific raids. 

“Ah- yes.” Glynda took a breath. “I guess this means our arrangement is over…”

“Our arang- oh! Farming for you,” Ruby said, “Well, we can still, try to get you the rest of your set, if you want?” 

Glynda heard Ruby take a breath, over her mic.

“I’m having a lot of fun,” Ruby said, with a little degree of what Glynda thought was affection. It was probably the sleep deprivation, but that single statement caused her heart to beat in her throat. Glynda lightly touched her computer screen. 

“Really?” Glynda said. 

“Yeah.” Ruby then coughed. “And- hey, I think you should have most of the cosmetics unlocked, now? Do you want to try finishing your aesthetics’ layer?” 

In the rush to finish the storyline, Glynda hadn’t done much with the cosmetics slots on her character, but they had gone out of their way to try to get the stuff on her wishlist during the climb. 

Glynda walked over to the cosmetics station of her base and started actually decking out her character.

“Alright, now I just need a Valestone to craft the Galaxy version of this torso armor,” Glynda said. 

“Ah-” Ruby said, meekly, through the microphone, “that was, actually, event exclusive,” she said, “last year…” 

“Oh.” Glynda said. She coughed. “Well- that’s fine, there's unvaulting events off and on, right? I’ll just make sure im prepped to farm for it when they come up-” 

“Well, okay, but- “ 

Ruby ran over to her stash, and then Glynda got a trade request. 

It wasn’t a Valestone, but it was a dress with a fancy transmog Glynda could use.

“I, saw the image you sent me for your wishlist,” Ruby said, “And I know this isn’t the exact one but I have an extra copy of a similar floofy fairy dress.” 

Glynda had to re-dye the leggings, but in the end the ensemble looked like a primal fairy magic guardian, just slightly more goth-y, which actually meant she looked a bit more coordinated with Ruby’s avatar. 

Glynda dashed over to where Ruby’s character was standing. 

“Arlight, how’s this look?” Glynda said. 

“Super cute!” Ruby said.

Glynda’s face flushed, slightly. 

“W-well, I should probably get to bed now,” Glynda squinted at her clock, “But- will you be on tomorrow?”

“Yeah!” Ruby said. 

And they played together every day after that.

  
  
  
  


* * *

OMAKE: 

Three months later, Ruby and Glynda decided to get married in-game, to share their loot stashes. 

  
  
  


**Author's Note:**

> The full-length version of this fic would probably expand on Glynda and Ruby's video game adventures (maybe the game they're playing would establish actual rules instead of just being a buzzword mishmash of every mmo i've ever played), to where Glynda gets a hang of the game mechanics at the same time Ruby gets a hang of her studies. Maybe Ruby would be playing some other game with her friends but Glynda convinces her to get back into GSO, or maybe Glynda tries out whatever game Ruby's group is playing atm and feels awkward about joining an existing gaming group. 
> 
> Maybe have some thematic throughline about how online spaces can be a way to socialize and find existentially meaningful tasks in a controlled environment but also potentially a negative escape from reality if you're not careful. Maybe Weiss and Blake would have some kind of parallel digital sugar-baby relationship, to compare/contrast with Glynda and Ruby's, and, of course, their actual in-game wedding would have to have a chapter.


End file.
